This Week's Top Stories

Here are the top stories from this past week's Day in Rock report

AC/DC's Phil Rudd Suffers A Heart Attack

Wetter appeared at King County District Court and is due to make a second appearance on August 31. The newspaper reports that probable-cause documents indicate the two boys were walking past one of the tour buses when they saw Wetter and asked if they could see inside the vehicle.

Wetter agreed, but warned them to be careful because Wilson's dogs were on the bus. When the boys left, it's reported they left the door open, causing Wetter to start shouting at them.

The pair became embroiled in a war of words following Ward's departure from the band's reunion in 2012, and he later accused the vocalist of having created an "impassable dilemma."

Black Sabbath are currently on their farewell world tour with Tommy Clufetos behind the drumkit. The road trip ends with two dates in their home city of Birmingham, UK, in February.

Earlier this month Ward said it was "incorrect" to suggest he'd make a return. Ozzy tells Rolling Stone: "Right now I'm having a blast. I suppose I may have a different head on when we do the last show. I used to resent going out on the road, but now it's fun. Nobody gets stoned, nobody gets drunk. We've been doing some great shows."

He says of his current relationship with Metallica: "I've got a call with Lars coming up on Thursday here. I've been talking to him every couple of weeks.

"As they're coming out with a new record, there's a lot of stuff going on within the underpinnings of it all, or whatever you wanna call it. We always are in touch.

"Now we're actually doing voice-to-voice, which is nice. I'm hoping to be able to get person-to-person before long. They do have quite a bit to do here with this new record. I'm excited for them, man. I'm proud of them."

Mustaine tweeted: "Body Count! Ice-T and I are talking about doing something again." Ice-T then responded: "You heard it first!" The pair have given no further indication if it'll take the form of live dates or a collaboration between the two artists.

Billboard reports the band sits at No. 1 on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart with their 2005 compilation, "Yer Favourites", while their latest release, "Man Machine Poem", comes in at No. 6.

Two of the group's classic albums also sit in the Top Ten - 1992's "Fully Completely" at No. 8 and 1989's "Up To Here" at No. 9. Over the previous week, the band's total album sales had a 157% increase, while digital song sales are up 342% and on-demand streams are up 185%.

The band premiered their first new song "Get Right" last week (Aug 21) and are now back with the follow up "Sure and Certain." The song is off their newly-announced forthcoming album Integrity Blues, scheduled for release October 21 via RCA Records.

"We've been working on this record for almost a year, really," says Akdins. "We're really proud of it. Towards the end of making a record there's always this period where you feel like you know this really awesome secret that no one else knows. Right now I'm kind of enjoying that."

Frontman Mike Muir recently told Jump Metal (via Blabbermouth): "A lot of people, obviously, associate Dave with the Slayer sound. On some of the Suicidal songs, it's different musically, and you can see how really a tremendously diverse drummer that he is.

A year before releasing what quickly became the biggest selling debut album in music history (a record Boston held for decades until only recently when nosed out by Guns'n'Roses' Appetite for Destruction), the band Boston did not even exist. In 1976 Tom Scholz's seven year basement tapes project would emerge out of nowhere to re-write the record books on popularity and profits. The Cinderella story of Scholz and Boston's debut would produce astronomical numbers (over 17 million sold to date), driven by three Top 40 singles "Peace of Mind", "Long Time" and the Top 5 smash "More Than A Feeling".

Earlier this week, vocalist and lyricist Anders Friden explained the meaning behind Battles - saying it was inspired by the emotional conflicts people experience every day.

He said: "All titles for every album come really late in the process. I write the lyrics and then I gather all the lyrics after we're done and I look at the album as a whole, then try to figure out what the theme is.

"With Battles, we all have our inner struggles from the day we are really young up until the day we die, so this album is about that and something everyone can relate to

On the evening of Sunday 21st August, our 4 day old baby Eliot suffered what we eventually found out was a Brain Hemorrhage. My wife Emma and I reacted as quickly as we could as soon as we began to feel his crying changed from what you would consider 'normal' to something else. We called an ambulance in the early hours of the morning and did our best to keep him calm, awake and alive.

When we arrived at Basingstoke hospital Eliot had stopped breathing more than once and was having seizures. Emma held him in the ambulance and kept him alive even though she could feel him drifting away in her arms. The hospital staff put Eliot into a coma, took over his breathing and sedated him to get the seizure under control.

They say it explores the relationship between the fictional characters, brothers Gabriel and Arhys, who must defend themselves against a dystopian empire.

Petrucci says: "Some people might find it interesting to know what our headspace was when we were writing this - the compositional techniques we used when writing, and to get deeper into the analysis of how we made this cinematic experience."

While he explains the importance of music and imagery, the guitarist also hints that their 13th studio work could potentially be made into a film in future.

And after Mike Shinoda revealed in June that it was "time to shift into the next gear," Bennington says he's proud of what Linkin Park have managed to achieve so far on the as-yet-untitled record.

He says: "I've been working really hard on some vocals for the last couple of months and we've done some really great stuff. The songs are amazing, I'm really proud of what we've accomplished in the studio.

Dear Jerry: Let's Play 2 follow the show's first Dear Jerry installment last year. It kicks off on October 14 at Washington's DAR Constitution Hall with Jerry Uncovered: Exploring Jerry Garcia through the JGB Songbook.

The follow-up to 2014 record Symmetry In Black was originally expected a month sooner, until its official launch date was revealed. See a short trailer below.

Mainman Kirk Windstein recently described the material as "more meat and potatoes" than previous outings. Now he says: "I intentionally went back and listened to a lot of old Crowbar stuff, like the self-titled and Broken Glass albums, to get a feel for what my mindset was 20-plus years ago.

Speculation has ebbed and flowed over the years that Perry - who returned to the stage in 2014 and is currently working on a solo album - might one day rejoin the band he fronted from 1977 to 1987 and 1995 to 1998.

But Schon argues that, while he'd still be willing to discuss the move, it wouldn't mean the band would generate more cash. The guitarist tells Freep.com: "What people don't understand is that we couldn't possibly be doing better right now, even if he was with us.

The metal legends will be playing their final show in their hometown in February and Ozzy suggested during a recent interview that there was still a chance that Ward would perform at the show.

When asked about the possibility Ozzy said, "every time I reach out to Bill I get yelled at for something. If something can be worked out, great." And now Ward has released the following comments:

"Ozzy has never reached out since January 26/27 2012 when he called to see when I would be arriving in the UK to join rehearsals for the 13 CD. Since that last phone call, he has never reached out to me, and I have not reached out to him.

"Ozzy needs to look to those who stopped me from coming through. The contract was impossible to sign; the group rhetoric of 2012, 2013 and throughout,... was fault-finding, condemning and full of dishonest evaluations of me as a person, including my so-called health issues. Had I signed the contract, I suspect I wouldn't have been labeled as having poor health or having all the other judgmental character references.

"As a reminder, in September 2015, we asked a Sabbath representative if there could be an opening to play with the band again. Their representative answered 'no.' It's hard to come through when you receive a 'no.'

The 24-song set on the Rock Or Bust world tour mirrored the band's August 27 US tour opener in Greensboro, NC, with fans in Florida witnessing the second performance of the 1975 classic, "Live Wire," in 34 years.

The BB&T Center appearance marked the second concert of a 10-date series of shows that were rescheduled after singer Brian Johnson was sidelined in March due to hearing loss issues.

Drummer John Dolmayan posted a photo jamming with bassist Shavo Odadjian and guitarist Daron Malakian with the exciting caption, "1..2..3..4..#systemofadown #letdothis."

Not to be outdone, Odadjian also posted a photo of Dolmayan playing the drums, but he reversed his friend's initial caption, writing instead, "4.3.2.1…...#systemofadown #letsdothis."

His band included his teenage son Nick on drums, plus a guest appearance from actor and singer Leslie Odom Jr. During the 12-minute performance Collins said: "It's a great pleasure to be here. I can now tell people I've played at the US Open. That's an English joke - you'll laugh on the way home."

Frontman David Draiman this week spoke about fans' reaction to their return, saying: "It's been amazing - the fire has been stoked. We're performing at a level that I personally believe is unprecedented in our careers.

Speaking exclusively to TeamRock about the project, Schiff says: "I spent many years attending metal shows and horror conventions. One convention/metal show I worked for was Kirk Hammett's Fear FestEvil.

"I thought more about how the two genres always seem to go hand-in-hand. As it turned out that no one had ever made a documentary that explained why that is. I wanted to get into the history of both genres and allow the horror personalities and musicians to share their views on the topic and a lot of other fun stuff."